I went through the 2 coon catalogs Sunday night and thought the catalog 1 stuff (most of my larger and better coon) would be the "protected" ones and the "no bids barred" would be the other but this morning it was the reverse. Someone said elsewhere that the better stuff had to be used as the "bait" to find out where the true bottom of the market was. So it was.

I had 26 coon up (23 leftover from 2015 and 3 new ones that went this Jan.). I sold 20, all from the "no protection" list. My top was a 3 XL W. Northern *SEL 4 that went for $13 and the lowest was LGE (didn't think I had anything that small up there) W. Northern *SEL 4-5 for $2.50 (less than a damaged 3-4XL). My average on the 20 coon was $6.70 before NAFA's take. None of my coon with limits sold. I'll have about 8 more going up to join the party for June.

I think I may still catch some coon next season to let some pheasant nests hatch out the following year in some areas around here but only send a mix of about 3-4 skins up there next year if global economic conditions haven't changed, if nothing else to test the waters. None of my 7 grinners now piling up there sold, and some were pretty nice, 3 XL and OC. My 2 opening weekend rats sold for $2.25 a piece. I guess that covered some snacks that day out with the boys. The only thing left to see is 1 smaller lighter brown buck mink sells.

Such is life...

_________________"And God said, Let us make man in our image …and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, …the fowl of the air…and all the creatures that move along the ground. Genesis 1:26

I heard from Wolf and Festus that some hides had moved at NAFA and when I checked I was happy to see I am in line for another fur check! 1 grey fox sold for $16 and 1 coon for $5. I have my trap supply catalogs out now trying to see what I can't live without for next season!

Hard sell for most furs so far. With over 230,000 coon left over from last year and another 300,000 added this year they had to do something to clear the volume. Thus the clearance sale. Thousands of coon sold for rock bottom prices. 50 cents a coon does not make money for the trapper nor does 1 dollar or 2. But they got rid of a pile at those prices. Fox prices have also crashed big time at this sale. I hope the marten will fare better on Thursday.

I think I'm going to try a different tack this season and do a snare line in strategic locations in various road ditches for k-9s but that will take some dedication on my part this summer and early fall finding those places, gps ing them, and mapping out a feasible route. Lay it out some week day in md-Dec., run it 2-3 hours before dawn until after New Years at least, and see what happens. Concentrate on shooting northern ducks and geese in November by going up to ne SD a couple of times during the migration. I haven't taken home a pile of greenheads for a long, long time. I'm overdue...

_________________"And God said, Let us make man in our image …and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, …the fowl of the air…and all the creatures that move along the ground. Genesis 1:26

For the hobby trapper[I qualify] it doesn't matter as much that fur is down but for the people who depend on the cheque it's near demoralizing. I took some coyotes to Halford hide last Friday and saw some wolf hides that I woulda through in the bush so some are either dang desperate for cash or really don't care about putting low quality hides up for auction that may help depress prices further.On a good note on this trip I got enough sausage mixing ingredients from the young lady who takes the furs to do 25lbs of pork breaky sausages for free.

Sold all my mink. one top lot mink for $15.50. average overall was $13.75. Sad prices for wild mink. Hope you do well with yours PC.

That's a heck of a lot better than the mink at the local sale here where mink averaged $4.00 each. I really like trapping mink but stayed away from them this past season. I believe I might hit the water for mink this coming season.

No, wolf NAFA held firm and didn't sell my LM *I BR-LBR little guy. It probably should have gone for about $7-7.50 (it was sandwiched between a couple of lots that sold for that price) but they couldn't get any takers. Got to leave something for the June sale

_________________"And God said, Let us make man in our image …and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, …the fowl of the air…and all the creatures that move along the ground. Genesis 1:26

Well, I guess they decided to do spring cleaning via private party at NAFA. They sold my damaged 2-3 XL skunk for a dime and all 7 of my grinners for a 64 cent average (almost all had some slight to full damage so I'm sure there are some dime ones there as well). We have a rule at our rummage sales, nothing less than a quarter. I wish NAFA would have a rule like that as well. If you can't get me at least 50 cents for a hide except maybe something like a squirrel just throw the thing away and say it has no commercial value. Don't get excited and tell me you got me a dime on something. Insult to both me and the animal.

I ended up with a 85% clearance on my 26 coon. The last 2 got sold pt for $5.75 combined. No section III hides. What a mess.

Bright side is I should spend November before Thanksgiving killing northern ducks and geese instead of trapping. I see a couple of road trips to ne SD before and after Vets Day...

_________________"And God said, Let us make man in our image …and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, …the fowl of the air…and all the creatures that move along the ground. Genesis 1:26

Perhaps most of you knew but I found out that NAFA gets a substanial amount of what buyers pay for low-valued fur. Take my 10 cent skunk they moved the other day for me private party deal. I get 9 cents as the seller but NAFA took in $1.86 from the buyer to get that skin. How does that work? A former insider over on tman broke it down this way:

The buyer fees on wild fur at NAFA is comprised of 3 parts. 2 of which depend on the species.

First of all - there is a 5.5% commission on the hammer price. On your 10 cent skunk, I figured that as .01

2nd is a per pelt commission. On skunk, that is .75. Per pelt fees on other species. Muskrat .30. Beaver $1.50. Otter $3.00. Etc

3rd is a per pelt packing/handling fee. On skunk, that is $1.00. Handling fees on other species. Muskrat .50. Beaver $2.00. Otter $6.00

So on your skunk. .01 plus .75 plus 1.00 = $1.76

Those 2nd and 3rd fees are the same on a species, no matter what the hammer price is. The top lot of skunk sold for $23.00. So the buyers fees on those skunks are $3.02.

I always thought they made their money via the commission the seller pays and maybe something like the 3rd fee, a "handling" cost. And I'm sure they would argue they spend the same amount of time picking up, bar coding, storing, lotting, bundling, and shipping out (if the fur actual leaves the NAFA warehouse) on a 10 cent skunk as they do on a $10 skunk. Still, you would think they would maybe pro rate a lower #1 and #2 buyer fees when stuff gets so low in actual sale cost. Even though its almost no money, it leaves a bad vibe with the trapper (at least me) that of the cash that the buyer paid to get that junk skunk skin into their possession, I got about 5% and NAFA 95% (9 cents vs. $1.77).

I learned a lot this NAFA sale. I think more misc. stuff might go the organic way of "dust to dust" then wasting my time putting it up...

_________________"And God said, Let us make man in our image …and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, …the fowl of the air…and all the creatures that move along the ground. Genesis 1:26